Method and system of overlay flow control

ABSTRACT

In one aspect, A computerized method of a gateway distributing routes learned through routing protocols (RP) into a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) includes the step of providing a first gateway that receives a route over a routing protocol. The method includes the step of with the first gateway, redistributing the route to one or more peer routers as a BGP route based on one or more specified criteria. The method includes the step of setting a gateway precedence based on the redistribution of the route to the one or more peer routers as the BGP route. The method includes the step of, based on the gateway precedence, setting a second gateway to automatically redistribute the route with different priorities to influence steering of traffic to a preferred gateway.

CLAIM OF BENEFIT TO PRIOR APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. Patent Publication 2020/0119952. U.S. Patent Publication 2020/0119952 is a continuation application of U.S. Pat. No. 10,454,714, filed Jun. 15, 2017. U.S. Pat. No. 10,454,714 claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62457816, filed Feb. 11, 2017. U.S. Pat. No. 10,454,714 also claims priority to and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 9,722,815, filed Jul. 2, 2014. U.S. Pat. No. 9,722,815 claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 61/844,822, filed Jul. 10, 2013. U.S. Patent Publication 2020/0119952, U.S. Pat. Nos. 10,454,714 and 9,722,815, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application 62/457,816, are incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This application relates generally to computer networking, and more specifically to a system, article of manufacture and method of establishing and managing overlay flow control in a computer network.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Employees working in branch offices of an Enterprises typically need to access resources that are located in another branch office. In some cases, these are located in the Enterprise Data Center, which is a central location for resources. Access to these resources is typically obtained by using a site-to-site VPN, which establishes a secure connection over a public network (e.g. the Internet, etc.). There may be dedicated computer equipment in the branch office, the other branch office and/or Data Center which establishes and maintains the secure connection. These types of site-to-site VPNs can be setup one at a time and can be resource intensive to set up and maintain.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, A computerized method of a gateway distributing routes learned through routing protocols (RP) into a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) includes the step of providing a first gateway that receives a route over a routing protocol. The method includes the step of with the first gateway, redistributing the route to one or more peer routers as a BGP route based on one or more specified criteria. The method includes the step of setting a gateway precedence based on the redistribution of the route to the one or more peer routers as the BGP route. The method includes the step of, based on the gateway precedence, setting a second gateway to automatically redistribute the route with different priorities to influence steering of traffic to a preferred gateway.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network for implementing Overlay Flow Control, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates another example network for implementing Overlay Flow Control, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example network for implementing Overlay Flow Control, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates another example network for implementing Overlay Flow Control, according to some embodiments.

FIGS. 5 A-B illustrate an example topology of two data centers can be configured as edge-to-edge VPN hubs, according to some embodiments.

FIGS. 6 A-B illustrate example failover behaviors for preferred and non-preferred routes, according to some embodiments.

FIGS. 7 A-B illustrate example failover behaviors for preferred and non-preferred routes, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 8 depicts an exemplary computing system that can be configured to perform any one of the processes provided herein.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example screen shot of an Overlay Flow Control table, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example process for overlay flow control, according to some embodiments.

The Figures described above are a representative set, and are not exhaustive with respect to embodying the invention.

DESCRIPTION

Disclosed are a system, method, and article of manufacture for overlay flow control. The following description is presented to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the various embodiments. Descriptions of specific devices, techniques, and applications are provided only as examples. Various modifications to the examples described herein can be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other examples and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the various embodiments.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” ‘one example,’ or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.

Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided, such as examples of programming, software modules, user selections, network transactions, database queries, database structures, hardware modules, hardware circuits, hardware chips, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art can recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.

The schematic flow chart diagrams included herein are generally set forth as logical flow chart diagrams. As such, the depicted order and labeled steps are indicative of one embodiment of the presented method. Other steps and methods may be conceived that are equivalent in function, logic, or effect to one or more steps, or portions thereof, of the illustrated method. Additionally, the format and symbols employed are provided to explain the logical steps of the method and are understood not to limit the scope of the method. Although various arrow types and line types may be employed in the flaw chart diagrams, and they are understood not to limit the scope of the corresponding method. Indeed, some arrows or other connectors may be used to indicate only the logical flow of the method. For instance, an arrow may indicate a waiting or monitoring period of unspecified duration between enumerated steps of the depicted method. Additionally, the order in which a particular method occurs may or may not strictly adhere to the order of the corresponding steps shown.

Definitions

Example definitions for some embodiments are now provided.

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) can be a standardized exterior gateway protocol designed to exchange routing and reachability information among autonomous systems (AS) on the Internet.

Cloud computing can involve deploying groups of remote servers and/or software networks that allow centralized data storage and online access to computer services or resources. These groups of remote serves and/or software networks can be a collection of remote computing services.

CE router (customer edge router) can be a router located on the customer premises that provides an Ethernet interface between the customer's LAN and the provider's core network. CE routers can be a component in an MPLS architecture.

Customer-premises equipment (CPE) can be any terminal and associated equipment located at a subscriber's premises and connected with a carrier's telecommunication channel at the demarcation point.

Edge device can be a device that provides an entry point, into enterprise or service provider core networks. An edge device can be software running in a virtual machine (VM) located in a branch office and/or customer premises.

Firewall can be a network security system that monitors and controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules.

Flow can be a grouping of packets that match a five (5) tuple which is a combination of Source IP Address (SIP), Destination IP Address (DIP), L4 Source Port (SPORT) and L4 Destination Port (DPORT) and the L4 protocol (PROTO).

Forward error correction (FEC) (e.g. channel coding) can be a technique used for controlling errors in data transmission over unreliable or noisy communication channels.

Deep learning can be a type of machine learning based on a set of algorithms that attempt to model high-level abstractions in data by using model architectures, with complex structures or otherwise, composed of multiple non-linear transformations

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) can be the ability to analyze the different layers of a packet on the network.

Gateway can be a node (e.g. a router) on a computer network that serves as an access point to another network.

Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) can be a protocol suite for securing Internet Protocol (IP) communications by authenticating and encrypting each IP packet of a communication session.

Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) can be an attribute of the Border Gateway Protocol used to influence route preference.

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) can be a mechanism in telecommunications networks that directs data from one network node to the next based on short path labels rather than long network addresses, thus avoiding complex lookups in a routing table.

Orchestrator can include a software component that provides multi-tenant and role based centralized configuration management and visibility.

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) can be a routing protocol for Internet Protocol (IP) networks. OSPF ca use a link state routing (BR) algorithm and falls into the group of Interior gateway protocols (IGPs), operating within a single autonomous system (AS).

Overlay Flow Control table can be a user interface on the Orchestrator which displays all routes in the customer and allows for editing routing attributes, preferred exits, and default behaviors for future learned routes.

Quality of Service (QoS) can include the ability to define a guaranteed set of actions such as routing, resource constraints (e.g. bandwidth, latency etc.).

Software as a service (SaaS) can be a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.

Tunneling protocol can allow a network user to access or provide a network service that the underlying network does not support or provide directly.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a desktop-oriented service that hosts user desktop environments on remote servers and/or blade PCs. Users access the desktops over a network using a remote display protocol.

Virtual private network (VPN) can extend a private network across a public network, such as the Internet. It can enable users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network, and thus benefit from the functionality, security and management policies of the private network.

Voice over IP (VoIP) can a methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.

Additional example definitions are provided herein.

Examples Systems and Processes of Overlay Flow Control

In order to integrate into customer environments with minimal configuration required on existing devices, an Edge device and a gateway system can support dynamic routing protocols. In order to facilitate, simplified use and management of these dynamic routing protocols such as OSPF. Accordingly, various Overlay Flow Control methods and system can be implemented. These can provide a user a single, simple point of configuration for all routes in a network without requiring changes to the protocol configuration itself.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network 100 for implementing Overlay Flow Control, according to some embodiments. Network 100 provides an example topology, with a single L3 switch 116 that is connected on the LAN 118 side of an edge device 112 (e.g. a Velocloud® edge device, etc.). L3 switch 116 can also be connected to a CE router 110. CE router 110 can redistribute an MPLS 102 and/or BGP 106 routes into OSPF 114 routes. In this topology, the edge device can learn routes from the L3 switch 116. Edge device 112 can inject its own routes as well. Network 100 can be communicatively coupled with the Internet 104 utilizing routing protocol 108 (e.g. Velocloud® routing protocol (VCRP), etc.). CE router 110 can be a customer-edge (CE) router. It is noted that in some examples, BGP can prefer routes with the shortest AS-path. The AS-path-prepend adds the AS number to the beginning of the AS path to make a shorter path appear longer and therefore less preferable.

FIG. 2 illustrates another example network 200 for implementing Overlay Flow Control, according to some embodiments. Network 100 provides an example topology where the Internet 204 and MPLS 202 links both terminate on a single router 210. Edge device 212 can be deployed in a ‘one-arm’ configuration attached to CE router 210. The edge device can redistribute an MPLS 102 and/or BGP 106 routes into OSPF 114 routes. In this topology, edge device 212 can learn routes from the L3 switch 116. In this example topology, edge device 212 can learn routes from the CE router 210, as well as injecting its own routes.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example network 300 for implementing Overlay Flow Control, according to some embodiments. In an example large branch site, an active/active L3 switches 316-318 can communicate routes using OSPF 314 between two upstream devices (e.g. an Edge device) using OSPF 314 and a CE router 310. CE router 310 redistribute MPLS BGP routes 302, 306 into OSPF routes 314. It is noted that network 300 includes the notion of a single WAN link (e.g. MPLS) is accessible via two routed interfaces. In order to support this, a virtual IP address can be provisioned inside the edge and used in OSPF advertisement.

FIG. 4 illustrates another example network 400 for implementing Overlay Flow Control, according to some embodiments. Network 400 can implement Overlay Flow Control in a datacenter site. A datacenter can have a distinct separation between the MPLS core and DMZ switch. The L3 switch can be talking OSPF and can be used for route learning and injection. The firewall within the DMZ can use routes injected via OSPF (though none may be learned) to ensure that returning Internet traffic is routed symmetrically.

FIGS. 5A-B illustrate an example topology 500 of two data centers can be configured as edge-to-edge VPN hubs, according to some embodiments. Example topology 500 can include redundant data centers which advertise the same subnets with different costs. In this scenario, both data centers (e.g. a primary datacenter and a backup datacenter, etc.) can be configured as edge-to-edge VPN hubs 502 and 504. As all edges connect directly to each hub 502 and 504 (e.g. via MPLS 506 and/or Internet 508) using paths 516, hubs 502 and 504 can also connect directly to each other using paths 514. Based on a route cost value, network traffic can be steered to the preferred active datacenter.

The customer can indicate whether routes are preferred (e.g. VeloCloud® Overlay becomes the default path with MPLS 506 as a backup) and/or non-preferred (e.g. where MPLS 506 remains the default path with VeloCloud® Overlay as a backup). The route costs for preferred, non-preferred and/or default routes can be configurable. For example, they can have different defaults based on whether OE1 or OE2 routes are used in the redistribution.

In one example, a CE Router can advertise an OE2 route. For routes with cost ‘n’ (where ‘n>1’), it can be advertised with cost ‘n−1’. For routes with cost ‘1’, it can be advertised with cost ‘1’ and a link cost ‘m−1’ where ‘m’ is the link cost from the L3 Switch/Router to the CE router.

In another example, CE Router advertises an OE1 route. Take the OE1 route cost as ‘n’. The link cost can be obtained from the L3 Switch/Router to the CE router as ‘m’. It can be advertised a route with cost ‘n-prime’ and link cost ‘m-prime’ such that ‘n-prime’+‘m-prime’)<(‘n+m’).

FIGS. 6 A-B illustrate example failover behaviors for preferred and non preferred routes, according to some embodiments. FIGS. 7 A-B illustrate example failover behaviors for preferred and non-preferred routes, according to some embodiments.

It is noted that though route costs can be calculated for preferred and non-preferred routes (e.g. as provided supra), for simplicity they are presented below as ‘n’ for CE router cost, ‘n−1’ for a preferred route cost and ‘n+1’ for a non-preferred route cost.

To simplify the visualization and management of routes, they can be presented in an Overlay Flow Control table (e.g. see FIG. 9 infra). This table provides an enterprise-wide view of routes, routing adjacencies and preferred exits for each specific route. The preferred exit for any given route can be selected which can result in the routing preferences being automatically updated at each Edge device and advertised to influence routing changes across the network without the customer having to perform any further configuration actions. An edge device can implement the following rules for redistributing VCRP into OSPF. First, an edge device can redistribute VCRP prefixes that belong to various bronze sites as OE1, metric <m> if VCRP route preference is lower than DIRECT (if available) route preference. Else the prefixes are redistributed as OE2, metric <m> where m=low priority. A Direct route preference can be fixed to two-hundred and fifty-six (256). A VCRP route preference lower than 256 can indicate a route as a preferred route otherwise a Direct rout (if available) is preferred. The system can watch out for how CPE's redistribute this prefix into the MPLS cloud. The system can determine if the metric type is preserved by BGP attributes while redistributing into OSPF. The system can determine if the cost is preserved by BGP attributes while redistributing into OSPF.

Route insertion rules can be implemented. Routes can be inserted into a unified routing table based on the type of VPN profile configured. Hubs can setup direct routes for all VCRP prefixes. Branches can setup direct routes for prefixes via CG and/or VPN-hubs and/or DE2E direct route. For the same prefix, there can be two routes per transit point. This can be because the prefix is advertised by the owner and the hub. A first route can have a next_hop logical ID as transit point and destination logical ID as the owner. A next route can have a next hop logical ID and/or destination logical ID as VPN hub (e.g. not applicable for CG and DE2E).

A first example use case can include provisioning an edge device inside a datacenter location that previously did not contain one. In this example, Hub1 can be inserted into the Datacenter site as shown in the picture with a routed interface connected to L3 switch and the other WAN link connected to the Internet. The leg connecting L3 switch and Hub1 can have OSPF enabled. Hub1 can advertise default route 0.0.0.0/0 (originate-default) with metric 0 to L3 switch. This can allow Hub1 to take over Internet traffic sourced by subnets connected to L3 switch. Route H can have been learned as intra-area route (O). Route ‘S’ can have been learned as external type route (e.g. OEx). Route H and Route S can be added to OSPF view and are sent to VCO for GNDT sync up. Hub1 can be marked as owner of prefix ‘H’ and VCO responds to Hub1 with advertise flag set to True for prefix ‘H’. Sites that advertise intra-area (O) or inter-area (IA) routes can be marked as owner of the routes in GNDT and can be allowed to advertise the routes to VCG. VCO can respond to Hub1 with advertise flag set to False for prefix ‘S’ as ‘S’ is an external-route and requires administrator's intervention. Hub1 can advertises route ‘H’ to VCG through VCRP.

In a second use-case example, a Bronze site can be brought online. It is noted that the as a prerequisite, the Datacenter are already be online. A Bronze1 site (e.g. a simple branch office site with only Internet connections and no MPLS or dynamic routing protocols such as OSPF in use at the site) can be provisioned and connected to VCG through an Internet link. Bronze1 site can advertise route ‘B’ to VCG through VCRP. VCG can be a reflector that reflects route ‘B’ to Hub1 with Bronze1 site as next hop and can reflect route ‘H’ to Bronze1 site with Hub1 site as next hop.

In a third use-case example, a Silver site (e.g. a branch office site containing a hybrid of MPLS and internet WAN links as well as an L3 device which is learning and advertising routes via OSPF) can be brought online. It is noted that the as a prerequisite, the Datacenter and associated Bronze site are already be online. Silver1 site can be stood up and connected to VCG through an Internet link. Silver1 site can learn routes ‘H’ and ‘B’ through VCG and install the learned sites into a unified route table. For example, Silver1 site can learn routes ‘S’ as an intra-area and routes ‘H’ and ‘B’ as external routes (e.g. from L3 switch). Routes ‘S’, ‘H’, and ‘B’ can be added to OSPF View and are communicated to VCO for GNDT synchronization. VCO responds with advertise flag set to ‘True’ for prefix ‘S’ but set to False for prefix ‘H’ and ‘B’. Silver1 can advertise ‘S’ to other branches via VCG over VCRP.

In a fourth use-case example, a legacy site route advertisement can be implemented. It is noted that the as a prerequisite, the Datacenter and associated Bronze and Silver sites are already online. Legacy site route ‘L’ can be learned by Hub1 site and Silver1 site as external route (e.g. OEx). Hub1 and Silver1 can communicate route ‘L’ to VCO for GNDT synchronization. Hub1 can be chosen as owner for the external route ‘L’, (e.g. without administrator intervention). Hub1 can advertise route ‘L’ to other branches via VCG over VCRP. This can enable connectivity between legacy site ‘L’ and bronze1 site ‘B’.

Various examples of hybrid sites distributing routes learned through VCRP into OSPF are now discussed. In a first example, a hybrid site on receiving route ‘R’ over VCRP can redistribute ‘R’ to L3 switch as external route based on various criteria. VeloCloud® (KB) can be set as preferred. Route ‘R’ can be revoked if it was installed with metric type OE2. Route ‘R’ can be redistributed with metric type OE1, metric ‘M’=1; etc. Accordingly, the L3 switch can be programmed with route ‘R’ pointing to an edge device (e.g. a Velocloud® edge, etc.). Additionally, OE1 can provide the adjacent routers to add cost to route as the routes get redistributed further and thus may not impact the route priority for this route ‘R’ on other receiving sites. In one example, Silver1 can install route ‘R’ with metric 1, metric type OE1. This route ‘R’ can be installed as the high priority route on adjacent L3 router(s). However, when this route ‘R’ reaches another hybrid site. For example, Datacenter site can see that the route ‘R’ with metric>one (1). Accordingly, this does not affect the route ‘R’ on adjacent L3 routers of Datacenter site that can be pointing to Datacenter site as next hop.

A Direct criterion can be set as preferred when it is available. In one example, route ‘R’ can be revoked if it was installed with metric type OE1, metric=one (1). Route ‘R’ can be redistributed with metric type OE2, metric ‘M’=cost of ‘R’+<low_prio_offset>. <low_prio_offset> can be some value that installs the route as low priority route. The value can be updated based on lab experiment.

Hybrid site redistributing ‘R’ to L3 switch can enable connectivity between ‘R’ and ‘B’ over VeloCloud® B2B overlay. The VeloCloud® B2B Overlay is the VeloCloud® Edge and Gateway multipath system that was defined in the original patent providing multipath VPN connectivity between sites. Additionally, it allows connectivity between legacy sites ‘L’ and ‘B’ over private links and Velocloud B2B overlay.

Various examples of a gateway (e.g. a VeloCloud® Gateway, etc.) distributing routes learned through a routing protocol (e.g. VCRP) into BGP are now discussed. In a first example, a gateway receiving route over VCRP can redistribute ‘R’ to the adjacent L3 router(s) as a BGP route based on various criteria. Based on the gateway precedence, different gateway(s) can automatically redistribute with different priorities to influence steering of traffic to the preferred gateway. In one example, gateway 1 can redistribute route ‘R’ with MED 10 and gateway 2 can redistribute route ‘R’ with MED 20. In another example, a less preferred gateway 2 can send ‘R’ with automatic AS-path-prepend to effectively make gateway 1 preferred. In another example, the user may specify BGP communities in a priority-order (e.g. based on their mapping to local-preference on the provider-edge (PE) router side (e.g. a provider-edge router can be a version of a CE router that sits on the provider's edge instead of the customer's edge, etc.). Gateway 1 can then automatically redistribute route ‘R’ with a community value from this ordered list which is more preferred than the community value chosen on the route redistributed by gateway 2.

To facilitate ease of deployment of transit and non-transit edges (and/or to better categorize routes which are not local to an edge (e.g. routes learned from a separate autonomous system e.g. MPLS)), a new concept Uplink can be provided/implemented. A user may tag routes as Uplink for OFC driven preference/filtering purposes. In one example, user marks a BGP neighbor as Uplink and all routes learnt from this peer are tagged as Uplink (e.g. when replacing MPLS Customer Edge Router with a VeloCloud® Edge, etc.). In another example, the user can set a specific community value for routes not local to the Edge and configures that community value on the Edge BGP config as Uplink Community. Then any BGP learned route that has that community value, can be considered Uplink route. The OFC then provides global configuration options for Uplink routes that the user can use to easily control route propagation without manipulating routes individually.

Additional Exemplary Computer Architecture and Systems

FIG. 8 depicts an exemplary computing system 800 that can be configured to perform any one of the processes provided herein. In this context, computing system 800 may include, for example, a processor, memory, storage, and I/O devices (e.g., monitor, keyboard, disk drive, Internet connection, etc.). However, computing system 800 may include circuitry or other specialized hardware for carrying out some or all aspects of the processes. In some operational settings, computing system 800 may be configured as a system that includes one or more units, each of which is configured to carry out some aspects of the processes either in software, hardware, or some combination thereof.

FIG. 8 depicts computing system 800 with a number of components that may be used to perform any of the processes described herein. The main system 802 includes a motherboard 804 having an I/O section 806, one or more central processing units (CPU) 808, and a memory section 810, which may have a flash memory card 812 related to it. The I/O section 806 can be connected to a display 814, a keyboard and/or other user input (not shown), a disk storage unit 816, and a media drive unit 818. The media drive unit 818 can read/write a computer-readable medium 820, which can contain programs 822 and/or data. Computing system 800 can include a web browser. Moreover, it is noted that computing system 800 can be configured to include additional systems in order to fulfill various functionalities. Computing system 800 can communicate with other computing devices based on various computer communication protocols such a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® (and/or other standards for exchanging data over short distances includes those using short-wavelength radio transmissions), USB, Ethernet, cellular, an ultrasonic local area communication protocol, etc.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example screen shot 900 of an Overlay Flow Control table, according to some embodiments. Overlay Flow Control table can be a user interface on the Orchestrator. Screen shot 900 displays all routes in the customer system. Overlay Flow Control table allows for editing routing attributes, preferred exits, and default behaviors for future learned routes.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example process 1000 for overlay flow control, according to some embodiments. In step 1002, process 1000 can provide a first gateway that receives a route over a routing protocol. In step 1004, process 1000 can, with the first gateway, redistribute the route to one or more peer routers as a BGP route based on one or more specified criteria. In step 1006, process 1000 can set a gateway precedence based on the redistribution of the route to the one or more peer routers as the BGP route. In step 1008, process 1000 can, based on the gateway precedence, set a second gateway to automatically redistribute the route with different priorities to influence steering of traffic to a preferred gateway. A peer router can be a router configured to be a peer to an edge router (e.g. a VeloCloud® edge, etc.) on a LAN. For example, a peer router can be an adjacent peer routers layer three (L3) router. It is noted that an edge device can be utilized in lieu of and/or as a gateway in some embodiments. For example, an edge device can redistribute the route as a BGP route or an OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) route.

CONCLUSION

Although the present embodiments have been described with reference to specific example embodiments, various modifications and changes can be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the various embodiments. For example, the various devices, modules, etc. described herein can be enabled and operated using hardware circuitry, firmware, software or any combination of hardware, firmware, and software (e.g., embodied in a machine-readable medium).

In addition, it can be appreciated that the various operations, processes, and methods disclosed herein can be embodied in a machine-readable medium and/or a machine accessible medium compatible with a data processing system (e.g., a computer system), and can be performed in any order (e.g., including using means for achieving the various operations). Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. In some embodiments, the machine-readable medium can be a non-transitory form of machine-readable medium. 

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent of the United States is:
 1. A computerized method of distributing routes learned through a first routing protocol (RP) into a second routing protocol that is a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), the method comprising: at a first router: receiving a route over the first routing protocol; and using BGP to distribute the route to a second router as a BGP route by distributing the route with a router precedence that assigns the route, from an ordered list of community values, with a first community value that is more preferred than a second community value that is chosen for the route when the second router redistributes the route, wherein based on the router precedence, the second router automatically redistributes the route with the second community value to influence steering of traffic to the first router as a preferred router for the distributed route.
 2. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the first router distributes the route with a first Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) identifier, and wherein the second router redistributes the route with a second MED identifier.
 3. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the second router is a less preferred router, and wherein the second router sends the route with an automatic autonomous system (AS)-path-prepend to set the first router as the preferred router.
 4. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein a user specifies a set of BGP communities in a priority-order.
 5. The computerized method of claim 4, wherein the user specifies the set of BGP communities in the priority-order based on a mapping of the set of BGP communities to a Local-Preference on a provider-edge (PE) router side.
 6. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the first router comprises a node on a computer network that serves as an access point to another network.
 7. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the second router comprises an adjacent layer three (L3) router.
 8. A computer system for distributing routes learned through a first routing protocol (RP) into a second routing protocol that is a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) at a first router, the first router comprising: at least one processor configured to execute instructions; and a memory containing instructions which when executed on the processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations that: receives a route over the first routing protocol; and uses BGP to distribute the route to a second router as a BGP route by distributing the route with a router precedence that assigns the route, from an ordered list of community values, with a first community value that is more preferred than a second community value that is chosen for the route when the second router redistributes the route, wherein based on the router precedence, the second router automatically redistributes the route with the second community value to influence steering of traffic to the first router as a preferred router for the distributed route.
 9. The computerized system of claim 8, wherein the first router distributes the route with a first Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) identifier, and wherein the second router redistributes the route with a second MED identifier.
 10. The computerized system of claim 8, wherein the second router comprises a less preferred router, and wherein the second router sends the route with an automatic autonomous system (AS)-path-prepend to set the first router as the preferred router.
 11. The computerized system of claim 8, wherein a user specifies a set of BGP communities in a priority-order.
 12. The computerized system of claim 11, wherein the user specifies the set of BGP communities in the priority-order based on a mapping of the set of BGP communities to a Local-Preference on a provider-edge (PE) router side.
 13. The computerized system of claim 8, wherein the first router comprises a node on a computer network that serves as an access point to another network.
 14. The computerized system of claim 8, wherein the second router comprises an adjacent layer three (L3) router. 